I like Vinnie Mirchandani because he doesn’t beat around the bush. He responds to Paul Graham’s article “Microsoft is Dead” by suggesting that its not just Microsoft but also IBM, SAP and Oracle that are dead (see his post “MISO is dead”). In a way he is right. They are all part of the fading edge. They are dealing with a saturated market on one side and with disruptive forces (offshoring, open source and SaaS) on the other. What’s rising in place of MISO is YEGA. Yahoo, eBay, Google and Amazon are part of the leading edge. They own the best data centers and will slowly but surely become platforms for cloud computing. This is a big inflection point the YEGA firms will get to ride for the next several years.
But if truth be told, my respect goes to GET-IN, a slight twist on letters that represents GE, TI and Nokia (see my Growth Anatomy Series). These companies are at the forefront of opening up emerging markets by doing in-market incubation of new products in places like India. They have a lot to teach others about making orbit change happen.
Thanks a lot, Sharad. This post has been a treasure in terms of the rich pointers that you have combined and presented in a single posting. I don’t know whether you even realized while wring this: This little writng of yours kept me engaged reading for hours! You are indeed doing a great service to the community.
– sn
The biggest reason why MS, IBM etc face challenges could be that they are no longer places where talented techies want to work. The exponential swiftness with which Microsoft’s aura among new graduates is crumbling is something to behold. I am speaking about real techies who can make a difference by writing great code, not your average corporate climber brilliant grad who wants to join MS for it’s name and write functional specs and has no passion for technology. This inability to attract talent might be the reason why MS simply cannot come up with interesting ideas.
As for your second point on GET-IN, I would think that their product incubations in India is a direct result of market forces rather than “great vision”. Product development and more importantly product control will flow into regions where the product has a market. This is why product outsourcing is still not passing muster in India, because there are some intangibles that go into design which will become apparent only if you meet actual customers. For Nokia and GE, India is one of the biggest markets in the world. So they are not smrt if they are not developing products locally in close contact with local demands.
Actually if I am not wrong, Motorola also does somoe mobile development in India.